The IPO Drought: What’s Really Keeping Hot Startups Off the Market Right Now?
You’d think with Ireland’s housing crisis hitting fever pitch, the country’s two giant homebuilders—Cairn Homes and Glenveagh Properties—going public and thriving would light a fire under other Irish businesses to follow suit, right? These guys popped onto the stock market scene just after the financial calamity and, boom, now they’re churning out 5,000 homes a year and each valued at over a billion euros. Yet, here we are, scratching our heads wondering why more Irish companies aren’t jumping on the IPO bandwagon to fuel their growth. It’s like having a winning lottery ticket and deciding not to play it. But there’s more to this story than just good timing and opportunity. With Euronext Dublin’s listings dwindling and key players heading stateside, what’s holding Irish firms back from punching their ticket on the stock market? Is it culture, capital scarcity, or just that private equity’s gotten too cozy? Let’s dig into the nitty-gritty and see what’s cooking behind the scenes — because understanding this could just change the game for Ireland’s business landscape. LEARN MORE
Ireland’s two biggest homebuilders have been public-offering success stories, but why aren’t more Irish businesses going down this funding route? Paul O’Donoghue looks at the issues involved
Ireland’s two main developers have been held up as living embodiments of the potential within the country’s stock market.
Cairn Homes and Glenveagh Properties went public in 2015 and 2017 respectively, in the wake of the financial crisis.From a standing start, a decade later the pair are delivering about 5,000 homes a year between them.
These are desperately needed at a time when Ireland is suffering from a severe housing shortage. “Cairn didn’t exist in 2014, while Glenveagh was very small,” says Brian Garrahy, a director at Davy Corporate Finance.
“They built themselves on public markets. Now, they’re the two biggest housebuilders in the country.”
The two companies are valued at over €1 billion each, with their share prices having roughly doubled over the last three years or so. Great success stories all round. So why haven’t they inspired other Irish companies to take the IPO (initial public offering) plunge and raise money from the stock market?
The struggles of the Irish equities have been well documented, but here is a quick recap for those unfamiliar.
In 2017, Paris-based Euronext announced plans to buy the Irish Stock Exchange. At the time, the market had 51 listed companies.The company promised a “stronger future” within the Euronext federal model, which gives national stock exchanges access to a single, unified European platform.
Hopes were high for Irish growth. Instead there has been decline, with the Irish market now having just over 20 equity listings.High-profile departures include building firm CRH, gambling giant Flutter and packaging business Smurfit Kappa (now Smurfit Westrock after a merger).
All three shifted their primary listings to the US.In their absence, there has been mainly tumbleweed.The last true IPO of an Irish business on the local market was HealthBeacon, a Dublin-based medical technology firm, which raised €25 million all the way back in December 2021.
Daryl Byrne, the CEO of Euronext Dublin, says that there have been multiple issues.
“The market has contracted. In an Irish context, from what we’ve seen, there isn’t a strong culture of companies accessing public markets to fund their growth,” Byrne says.
He also points to how many markets have struggled for new listings in recent years. Globally there were about 1,300 IPOs in 2025, according to EY. That level was down from a high of more than 2,000 in 2021, although up compared to the 1,055 recorded in 2016.
But the market is tougher in Europe, which recorded 105 IPOs in 2025, down from 131 in 2024. Many businesses interested in going public are increasingly pulled to deeper pockets in the US market.
Those who want to stay private often find cash available from venture capital or private equity funds. A perfect example is Fin, formerly Intercom.
In June Salesforce agreed to pay a whopping $3.6bn to acquire the Irish-founded business. Whereas once the Dublin-based company may have looked to the stock market, it managed to raise almost $500m across venture capital and debt without ever going down the IPO route.
So what is Euronext doing to drum up Irish equity listings? Plenty, says Byrne. First up is IPOready, Euronext’s flagship six-month educational programme for executives.
“Despite the name, it’s a programme for CEOs and CFOs to learn about financing options. But the focus is on IPO,” Byrne says.
Launched in Ireland in 2015, the programme has dozens of graduates here. However, just one — the aforementioned HealthBeacon — has actually gone on to an IPO. Does that suggest a problem?
“The numbers [going to IPO] are low, but what we found was that IPOs tend to go on the radar for companies when they are halfway down the financing path. [And] it could be three to four years before they even do an IPO,” Byrne says.
Euronext runs IPOready with support from Enterprise Ireland (EI), the state agency focused on helping small companies scale and get financing.EI provides funding for its clients to join IPOready.
Garrett Murray, the agency’s divisional manager for investment solutions, says feedback is “hugely positive”.
“Scaling is so critically important, at a company level and at an Irish economic level. The goal would be to scale more companies. We would love a suite of Irish companies [coming to] the Irish exchange,” he says.
“[With IPOready], yes they’re there to develop a pipeline for Euronext. But if you have the CEO go through the programme and realise ‘this isn’t for us’, there is value in that, rather than getting further into the process.”
Euronext has also pushed politicians for a suite of measures to encourage more listings. One of those has been partially granted. The government removed the 1 per cent stamp duty from the trading of shares in Irish-listed companies valued at less than €1bn, although Euronext wants the charge gone entirely.
However, the move has provided a boost for Euronext Access, one of its big hopes for Ireland. This “springboard” market for small enterprises launched last year. Byrne says it is designed for companies “at a much earlier stage of theirgrowth cycle”.
“Companies joining could be in the €10-20m [valuation] stage and looking to raise €3-4m.”The process is “less costly and more streamlined” compared to a “normal” IPO , he adds. And it has had its first listing.
Senus, a Roscommon-based environmental software company, raised €1.1m on the market last year, with an initial valuation of €13m.The hope is that by making it smoother for these smaller businesses, Euronext will develop a pipeline which can eventually transition to the main Dublin market.
“It sends out a positive signal, and we’ve had a lot of inquiries because of what Senus did,” Byrne says. He adds that the target is now “five companies coming through each year” on Irish Euronext markets, including Access.
“We have a number of companies in the process and are in active discussions with firms who have the intention of going public over the next 12 months.”
Fergal McAleavey, Corporate Finance Partner at EY Ireland, is a bit more downbeat.
“I would love to see it [Irish IPOs] happen more. But you have to look at what the trend has been for the last 10 years at least. There have been very few listings in Ireland as there isn’t as much capital in Ireland,” he says.
“This isn’t just an Irish problem. The UK [London Stock Exchange] has lost 25 per cent of its listed companies over the last decade. Ten [or] 20 years ago, a listing on the LSE was as premier as you could get. [But] it is becoming more and more [common] that the US is where shareholders and fund managers are sitting.”
Somewhat ironically, he also feels that the US could help stimulate European equity markets. McAleavey predicts that a series of anticipated mega-cap AI listings, which kicked off with the recent $1.8bn SpaceX IPO, will stimulate interest.
“You would hope that if the likes of SpaceX continues to perform well, it would be a big boost to the confidence of companies thinking of listing,” he says. “It’s been in the other direction the last number of years, where companies have done well under private equity.”
Brian Garrahy from Davy similarly frames slow IPO activity here as part of a broader shift.
“You have to look at the [European] trend, rather than just say this is a Dublin issue,” he says, pointing back to the general slowdown in new listings since the Covid-era boom.
However, he is more positive on new activity in the coming years.
“There are quite a number of corporates owned by private equity who may be looking to exit. The Irish market additions will continue to be infrequent because of how many companies we manufacture who get to a [significant] size. But over the next two to three years, I’m confident corporates in Ireland will look to the public markets.”
Garrahy again goes back to Cairn and Glenveagh, pointing out how their trading on the Irish stock exchange allowed them to regularly tap investors for funding and scale without private equity backers looking for a quick return on investment.
“As evidenced by the two housebuilders, the public market clearly has advantages. In terms of disclosure and shareholder management, it’s worth the effort.”
(Pic: Getty Images)
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